Jeffrey Sommers is a professor of the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, along with Senior Fellow at their Institute of World Affairs. He is also Senior Fellow at the Center for Political Economy at Babeș-Bolyai University. His work on austerity has found print in dozens of academic publications, and his op-eds have appeared in CounterPunch, Financial Times, the New York Times, Project Syndicate, the Guardian, the Nation, Social Europe and others. He also is the author of the book Race, Reality, and Realpolitik: U.S.–Haiti Relations in the Lead Up to the 1915 Occupation.

Patrick Bellegarde-Smith is professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He has authored and co-edited five books on Haiti, including The Breached Citadel, and served as president of the Haitian Studies Association. He has been featured in interviews by CNN International, NPR, and other major outlets.